Size of L.A. March Surprises Authorities

From the AP via Yahoo! News:

Immigration rights advocates more than 500,000 strong marched in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, demanding that Congress abandon attempts to make illegal immigration a felony and to build more walls along the border.

The massive demonstration, by far the biggest of several around the nation in recent days, came as President Bush prodded Republican congressional leaders to give some illegal immigrants a chance to work legally in the U.S. under certain conditions.

[...]

About 200 people protested outside a town hall-style meeting held by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., a leading sponsor of the House bill. He defended the legislation, saying he's trying to stop people from exploiting illegal immigrants for cheap labor, drug trafficking and prostitution.

"Those who do that are 21st-century slave masters, just like the 19th-century slave masters that we fought a civil war to get rid of," Sensenbrenner said at the meeting. "Unless we do something about illegal immigration, we're consigning illegal immigrants to be a permanent underclass, and I don't think that's moral."

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Read that last paragraph. A Republican said that? First Russ Feingold (D-WI) pushes for Bush's censure, now a Wisconsin Republican says its immoral to cast illegal immigrants as a "permanent underclass". Wisconsin seems to have some pretty decent politicians who no one has heard of, I now wonder if there are more progressive-thinking politicians like these guys (though censuring isn't really "progressive" in itself) but are just shut up by the majority of their parties who want to sustain things that should be changed and change things that should be sustained. We'll just have to keep our eyes on the news I guess.